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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 1 Review

Visual novels are a very interesting,
and uncommon, genre of games. They are more popular in Japan, but
lately this genre has been seeing more movement in other parts of the
world. Unfortunately a lot of Japanese visual novels are porn fests
at best, and disturbing fetish stories at worst. So there is
certainly room for visual novels that break out of that mold and
actually try to tell a good and captivating story. This is the case
for Higurashi When They Cry.

Just a story about a peaceful village in Japan, right?

Higurashi When They Cry is a series of
fourteen small psychological horror visual novels. It has been
around for some time now, but only just recently had an official
release in America. At this moment only the first novel is
available, and it is unknown when and if the second one will be
released. The first novel focuses on a young teenage boy named
Keichi Maebara as he and his family move to a small village in Japan
known as Hinamizawa. There, Keichi meets a group of girls (and
quickly befriends them). While at first the story may seem like one
big happy go lucky tale about a group of students going through the
trials and tribulations of life while taking part in a rather intense
game club. However, this all gradually goes to hell in a hand basket
when Keichi begins to uncover a dark secret within the village
itself. From there things only take a turn for the worst as Keichi
tries to unravel the mystery behind a series of death that occur once
a year during the Cotton Drifting Festival.

...right? Well at least it is for the first hour or so, then it becomes a nightmare.

Player interaction varies in visual
novels, and in the case of Higurashi, the only thing the player does
is click or press enter to advance the text. You never make any
choices, and the ending will always be the same. As a result, visual
novels have a very niche market given how little gameplay there is.
Higurashi makes up for this weakness by being well written and
combining that with sound effects and music to help add life to the
story. As a result, there are times when Higurashi is absolutely
terrifying. It doesn't rely on cheap jump scares like most western
horror does, and instead uses the unknown and ordinary to create an
intense and terrifying situation as the story progresses. Unlike
many visual novels that use big CG art scenes to tell parts of the
story, Higurashi relies on text and character portraits alone.

There isn't enough good psychological
horror out there in video games, and I can only hope that someday
there will be more games like Higurashi When They Cry that tell an
interesting story while doing a better job scaring the player than
most western horror could ever hope to accomplish. It may not be for
everyone, but players patient enough to sit through a 5 to 8 hour
visual novel like Higurashi When They Cry will be in for one well
polished and terrifying experience.